


Skin And Scales

by orphan_account



Category: Glee
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, M/M, Mpreg, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-07
Updated: 2013-05-29
Packaged: 2017-12-07 18:56:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/751895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt is a human. Blaine is a merman. Blaine washes up on shore, tangled in fishing nets, and can’t free himself. Kurt stumbles upon him by accident and sets him free. Blaine escapes back into the ocean, but can’t stop thinking about Kurt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

_Never swim upwards to the shore_ his father had always warned, brows lowered angrily and mouth set in a belligerent line. _It is too dangerous. Humans are cruel, vicious beings, and would rather kill you on sight than try to open up to something they don’t understand._

Blaine had heard the legends, everyone had, curled up beneath his father’s steely gaze as he spoke of horrors that belonged in the realm of black nightmares. Scales stripped from a pinned tail and made into a fashion for human kind; merpeople captured in nets of thick-woven rope and used as a carnival attraction, trapped in too-small tanks filled with poisoned water; sharp, barbed metal hooks digging deep into flesh, rendering its prey incapable of escape. Those were tales designed to frighten and disgust, to deter young merpeople from ever wishing to explore the land beyond the squeaks of the dolphins and deep rumbling cries of the whales.

But Blaine had heard legends, whispered by the turtles and the seabirds, telling of a land above that was not so bad. He heard stories of sunlight streaming over golden dunes, rolling fields of shining green grass like seaweed, buildings unlike castles but soaring so high they reached past the swirling clouds, myths that made him long to visit the land beyond the ebb and flow of waves, crave to see sunlight from above the water, ache with wanting for a land he’d never know of.

The sky was dark, the creatures fled below the pitching, rolling waves, the mothers chivvying their children into safer waters, but Blaine swam closer to the surface, eyes alight with the anticipation of the unknown. His head broke the waves, the sky above his head deep foreboding grey, waves rising foaming heads all around him, rearing to the sky and crashing down, vicious with their flying white fangs.

He ducked below the waves again, the shore a pale line far off, and started to swim fast towards the place he sought, tail beating powerfully at the water and arms curving through the waves as he had been born to move. His body thrummed with something like lightning, rushing through him at the speed of a racing wave as the pale line grew closer, more distinct, and curtains of steel grey came into view instead of the burnished blue sky he had been led to believe he would find.

There was debris washing through the water, wooden planks like those buried in the sand from shipwrecks, rocks flying through the waves like dolphins leaping and arcing, ropes that flashed past, twisting and turning and looking to wrap around innocent creatures and drag them down, vulnerable and trapped. Blaine dodged everything, his eyes trained on the shore that became more distinct with every flick of his tailfin. It was grey and bleak, the golden sunlight that the dunes should be awash with nowhere to be found, the legends fading away in front of Blaine’s fast-maturing eyes.

Water came from above when he pushed above the waves, but cold and flickering sharp over his skin, unfamiliar and raising shivers like ripples over his body, as if the needling water falling from the sky was a pebble and his body was the ocean. The shore was close now, clear to his eyes and calling out to him as a siren would, begging to be explored and memorised and told of in carefully crafted legends.

It all happened in barely a moment. In the time that seaweed could catch on arms slicing through water, a dolphin could chatter about a thousand things, a whale could send its song echoing far across the ocean. One moment Blaine was spinning through the water, dodging the debris that flew from nowhere on all sides, the next something thick and heavy hit him with the force of an overenthusiastic seal pup. A net, made of rope, binding him together, trapping his arms tight against his sides and tangling his tail so movement became an impossibility.

The waves, once his friends, his familiar territory, became his enemy as he tried to escape his trappings, utterly at the mercy of the forces of nature. The flying foam fangs clashed with him, the strength of the pounding water slammed him into rocks until his head spun with pain, blood seeping red like fading seaweed into the monstrous ocean.

Wet sand was soft beneath his abused body, the waves now barely lapping at his tail, apologetic for its earlier viciousness. Blaine looked down at the thick-woven ropes around his body, tried to wriggle an arm free, his tail lashing the shore in frustration, his teeth gritted with the effort as he fought against the bindings that trapped him, rendering him useless, helpless as a newly-hatched puffin chick.

There was music, soft as the whisper of legends through the coral. Cool hands, cool like the soothing touch of the ocean, pulling at ropes and gradually loosening their vicious hold. Eyes like the water, mingling colours on a deepening canvas, reflected with shock as the saviour’s gaze strayed downwards.

_A human._

Blaine didn’t think, didn’t pause to wonder upon those ocean eyes. The moment the ropes loosened around his tail, he wriggled free and slipped from sand back into the water, diving beneath the waves with a sinuous flick of his tail.


	2. Two

The water roiled in the wake of the storm, curious children prodding and poking at splintered planks of wood and coils of rope embedded deep into the seabed, pulled away and scolded by irate, fearing mothers. Blaine swam among them, dashing through crowds appearing from shelter with sinuous flicks of his tail, slicing through the water, away from the shore and back to the sea, back to sanity.

He couldn't help but remember the oceans of those eyes. Green like seaweed, blue like the water on a calm day, grey like rain lashing the surface of the waves, mingled around the windows to a soul that seemed pure and untarnished. The human hadn't tried to kill or capture him, strip his tail of its glittering scales or imprison him in a tank of poisonous water. The human had rescued him, torn apart the thick weaves of that net and sent him back into the realm of the ocean, back to his home where he was familiar with the currents and the whirlpools.

He couldn't stop thinking of those ocean eyes, of hands cool like the soothing balm of rolling waves brushing against his skin, of pale skin like moonlight rippling on the glassy surface of the water. The human hadn't been vicious or angry. He had been careful, loosening to knots and setting him free, possibly letting him escape from someone who would be far crueller if they found him.

The thought of the mysterious human kept him distracted, his thoughts drifting like seaweed when he should be thinking of others around him and of the work he had to do to play his part in the functioning of the kingdom. He thought of seeing those lips in a smile, of those hands on his skin again, of those eyes on his, things he shouldn't be thinking of.

Humans and merpeople were never made to coexist. They were created together, to hate and fear each other. He was never supposed to meet one, much less think of them with roving hands and soft lips and tender eyes.

He couldn't help himself, and returned to the shore in the dead of night, creeping through the dim, gently shifting waters to a moonlit shore, the sand white in the silvery beams, the waves lapping gently around him. He heard soft noises, like music, but unfamiliar, not a language he knew. The language of the humans, spoken quietly and lyrically.

He swam slowly closer to the shore, beating his tail in small flicks to avoid making any noise, not even the tiniest splash to alert the silhouette of a human to his presence. He saw the same human, the ocean-eyed man, sitting on the sand, looking up at the moon with a certain wistfulness in his gaze.

His hand lay close to the ocean, the occasional wave lapping over his skin. Blaine swam close and reached out his own hand. The brush of their fingertips together sent a feeling like lightning shooting through him. The human's head turned to him, and his eyes widened. But when he came closer, Blaine flipped backwards and beneath the waves, watching the silhouette of him standing at the shoreline and the moonlight dapple over the water.

* * *

Blaine returned to the shore each night, when the soft glow of the moonbeams slanted down into the depths, dyeing the pinnacles of the castle pale silver and his people retreated to their homes, settling among the softest seaweed to spend the night wrapped in dreams and the gentle back and forth swell of the ocean. And each night he hoped to see the mysterious glowing human, thinking over and over of the brief touch of their fingertips that still sent lightning arcing through his bodies, crackling hot beneath his skin.

But every rise of the moon, her baleful face surrounded by a delicate shroud of pale grey cloud, disappointed him with the curve of the beach, waves splashing over the moonlit sand and no sign of the beautiful man he longed to see again. It was some foreign longing, clutching at his heart with hands cold as the blackest depths of the ocean and keeping him miserable and betrayed no matter how bright sunlight played across the water or how young dolphins chattered and swam around him, trying to cheer his doleful spirits.

It took fifteen nights of returning to the surface before he found hope in the soft sound of wet sand beneath a great weight. He crept close to the shoreline, keeping behind one of the large rocks marking the end of the beach and the start of the ocean and watching the man he had looked so fervently for.

The man's head suddenly snapped up, eyes gleaming in the moonlight, and he ran to where Blaine hid. Blaine was backing away quickly, ready to flip beneath the waves and hide, when the man's lips began moving, his hands reaching out for Blaine. The sounds leaving his mouth were a language Blaine didn't understand, but spoken so melodically and sweetly he was transfixed by the simple smooth sounds of the language, the movement of the man's sweetly pink lips.

He shook his head gently, and the man's face fell. Blaine tried to ask him his name, find out more about the pale skin and ocean eyes that had captivated him from the very first moment, but the man's eyes widened in shock or fear and he shook his head too. Blaine couldn't help the hopelessness curling in the pit of his stomach that they couldn't even communicate, even share the joy of their separated lives.

But the handsome man just touched him, his cool fingers in Blaine's hair, trailing over his damp skin and tracing over the shining scales of his tail, and Blaine closed his eyes and let the touch seep down to his very soul, spreading warm and comforting from his heart all around his body, a smile coming over his face returned by the beautiful man.

He knew then, in that moment of moonshine, that he had to find a way to join the realm of the humans. His very being ached with longing to speak with this man, to know him, to be surrounded by him as he had heard the soft whispers of by those married in the kingdom fathoms below. He had to find a way to understand the music of his language and to walk with him on sun-dappled sand.


	3. Three

Blaine sought answers high and low throughout the ocean, his heart calling out for the man with skin pale as the baleful moon and eyes deep and shifting as the water his soul belonged to, his very being aching to be with him, to take his hand, to walk on human feet with him on golden sand. He wanted to be human, to have legs and feet and ears to understand the language and a voice to speak it and a warm body to twine with the mystery man's, like fronds of seaweed tangled around each other in the shifting currents.

There were ancient riddles, hidden in rocks embedded into the seabed and whispers from the elders of the kingdom, with their greying hair and the shimmer faded from their tales. Enraptured, he listened to their tales of a young woman who had longed to be free and love the human man who had captured her heart, who had come to them to escape him who she was betrothed and bound to, who had taken the potion and left their lair with courage bright in her eyes, and had never been seen again.

Of course, Blaine knew of her. Everyone had heard the stories of Elizabeth, the only one of their kind brave enough to go against a betrothal, taking a concoction from the elders and swimming to the surface, transforming herself into a creature she knew little of and submerging herself into a frightening and unfamiliar world to be with the one she loved. He not only knew of her, he had daydreamed of being like her since he was a mere child and had heard the stories for the first time.

And yet he was scared to take that step, so to speak, into the human world. Perhaps there was a way, a potion to enable him to speak the human's language, or to have the man speak his language, or to have him breathe as they were submerged beneath the waves.

The elders tutted lightly at him, but handed him a potion and told him to swim up to the surface and drink deeply, thinking of nothing but the man and the way Blaine felt about him even so early in the strange relationship they'd composed with the tips of their fingers, the flat pink palms of their hands.

Blaine did their bidding, waiting until the moon slipped into her place, her silver beams chasing away the sun, and his head broke the surface of the water, the vial clutched tightly between his trembling fingers. He looked up into the pale arc of the beach, and saw the man's silhouette there, waiting. For him? A small smile crept over his face, and, with renewed zeal, he placed the rim of the bottle to his lips and drank deeply, ready to speak the human language and communicate with the mysterious object of his current affections at long last.

Pain took hold of him, his mouth open in a silent scream as the magic took hold, too late to stop anything. This was worse than the most violent of storms holding him in its clutches, a self-inflicted agony that he couldn't stop or control, only suffer through until it ebbed as quickly as it had flowed.

Only now the panic came, because he couldn't feel his tail, couldn't flick his fins against the water, and salt flooded into his mouth, choking him. The water was no longer his friend, his ally, carrying him gently on the rolling swell, but dragging him down, black spotting his vision as he fell through the depths.

Then, suddenly, he was no longer falling, but floating, flying, something damp and solid beneath him, hands on his chest, pressing firmly, a soft voice begging him to open his eyes. And lips on his, warm and vaguely salted, breathing something into him, something precious that has his eyes flying open, his hands instinctively moving to rest on shifting muscle beneath thin material.

"Thank God you're okay," came a soft voice, and joy swelled in Blaine's heart, hearing that musical voice and knowing his magic had worked. "Can you stand? Can you hear me? What's your name? I'm Kurt."

Blaine smiled softly, shaking his head slowly. But, moment by moment, realisation crept over his mind. He was only supposed to be able to understand and speak the language, he wasn't supposed to be on land. His scales would dry out and he would fall life-threateningly ill, and he couldn't breathe out of water, and the ocean, his familiar, should never have attacked him like that.

He sucked in a breath of the unfamiliar substance as he looked down at himself. He wore nothing, all his sun-dappled skin on display in the pale moonlight. He had feet, legs, a body below the inward curve of his waist.

He was human.

* * *

Kurt's house was pretty, like him, all pale grainy wood like sand and the calm blues and white of the sea and the foam that flew with the waves. He set Blaine down gently on a padded chair, and went through into a room filled with strange shining appliances, floor-to-ceiling windows giving way to beautiful views of the beach, of the lingering sunset leaving the clouds shot through with gold.

"Do you need a drink?" Kurt asked softly, leaning through a gap in the wall, over some square things that appeared to be made of wood, with a gentle smile on his face, making his eyes sparkle like smooth water beneath a sunbeam. "I have tea, coffee, fruit juice, water, and there's alcohol around if you're someone who drinks before the moon's in the sky. That's the way I prefer to do it."

Blaine blinked at him, trying to find words that seemed foreign on his tongue, the sounds too guttural, not as beautiful as they were when rolling from Kurt's tongue. "Water, yes," he tried, and winced at the sound of his own voice, so much lower than Kurt's, too different, not beautiful. Kurt gave him an odd look, but turned to one of the devices, and pulled the door of it open. A sunbeam flickered on inside, and Blaine stared as Kurt removed a bottle from the shelf inside, and poured it into a glass such as he had discovered in the sea bed after shipwrecks.

"Oh, um…would you like to borrow some clothes?" Kurt asked, cheeks turning rapidly red as he looked over at Blaine and his eyes drifted downwards, to where his body curved out beyond his waist, where his tail had been until that terrible potion. Blaine looked down at himself to, looking at his legs, stretched out in front of him, his feet, toes curling into the carpet, and, between his legs and waist, something he had never known of. "You really should cover yourself up." His eyes rested on Blaine's face for a moment, and he said, "What's your name? I think I know you from somewhere."

"I am Blaine," Blaine said softly. "Clothes would be nice, please." Kurt nodded and rushed from the room, his cheeks red as the sky at sunset, to return a few minutes later, when Blaine had taken his glass of water and sipped at the cool, clear liquid, that wasn't salty as it was in his home, but simple against his tongue, an odd flavour that seemed like nothing but with a weight of so much more, with a bundle of clothes in his hands. "The sweats might be a bit long, but you can roll them up, and hopefully the T-shirt fits right, we're built differently." Kurt handed the clothes to Blaine, and he stared for a moment before stepping into what Kurt called 'underwear', then into the sweat, pulling the T-shirt over his head and emerging from the material to see Kurt's eyes on him again, darker than they had seemed previously.

The eyes fell to his legs, then drifted back up to the inward curve of his waist, then comprehension dawned in the lightening blue and Kurt's jaw dropped a little. "Are you the mermaid from the beach?" he asked softly. "The one who came every night to hear me sing." Blaine nodded, and Kurt crossed the room, falling down to sit next to Blaine, astonishment painted over his stunning face. "When you smiled when I touched you, I…it was wonderful, getting to touch you. I've always loved mermaids. My mother used to tell me tales about them, before she was…before she had to leave me."

Blaine laid a hand tentatively over Kurt's, curving it over the muscle of his thigh, mouth forming into a small **O** at the feel of the flesh beneath his palm. "It's terrible, that your mother had to leave you," he said gently. "I believe that some things are too beautiful to exist in your world. Perhaps that was such with your mother."

Kurt gave a small smile, and looked up with droplets like rain in his eyes, one slipping down his cheek, that Blaine swept away with a press of his thumb. "I shouldn't cry, I'm sorry-"

Blaine stopped Kurt from crying by wrapping his arms around him and cradling him into his chest, as his brother often had to comfort him. "You aren't weak," he whispered to the handsome man. "Courage."


	4. Four

The days passed, composed with the rise and fall of the sun through a burnished blue sky. Blaine continued to exist in this human body, learning more of the language with every day, finding himself sitting long after the moon was in the sky with Kurt, quietly talking and smiling and touching. He didn't know what to do, how long the magic would last, what the consequences could be, how to exist in this strange new world that he didn't understand. Kurt was all he had, the only thing keeping him afloat as everything changed, turned upside-down, became confused.

"Have you ever been kissed, Blaine?" Kurt asked softly one night, his fingers playing against Blaine's forearm as they sat on the patio, watching the setting sun dye the sky streaked red, Blaine's feet tangled around Kurt's ankle and his hand at Kurt's waist.

"Never," Blaine answered softly, nervously. "I've never felt a love like that for someone. There was one merman who chased me, and went to my father asking for my hand in marriage, but my father knew I was saving myself for someone far more special than him." He turned to Kurt, sliding his legs over Kurt's and swinging his feet lazily back and forth. "Is it the same when humans kiss? Is it about love and tenderness and wanting to touch each other?"

"I like to think so," Kurt murmured, close and warm and solid, smiling sweetly up at Blaine. "To me, if I ever got kissed, it would be the touch of the fingertips that counted. I'd want it slow, to feel his breath against my skin before our lips met, for his hands to hold my face gently, for us to feel like we were coming home. It would have to be perfect."

Nervously, Blaine inhaled sharply and leaned in, pressing his lips to Kurt, warm and plump against his, hands rising to cup his face like it was the most precious find from a shipwreck. Kurt seemed to still for a moment with surprise, but kissed him back, fingers tangling into the curls at the base of Blaine's neck. Blaine moved first, breaking the kiss but barely moving away, whispering, "Was that as perfect as you wanted?"

"Blaine, it was...everything," Kurt whispered sweetly, and kissed him again, lips moving slow and sweet against Blaine's, his tongue finding the crease between Blaine's lips and sliding into his mouth, sending heat shooting through Blaine's body, simmering low in his belly. Kurt pulled away once more, eyes swirling dark, his hand sliding up Blaine's thigh to cup him through his pants.

With Kurt working in the tiny seaside village, Blaine had spent long summer days reading the books Kurt owned about sex, seeing the beauty of the intimacy it could bring, learning in theory where everything should go and how it could feel. But nothing prepared him for the reality of Kurt's hand on him, his cock swelling to full hardness beneath the caress, Kurt's tongue exploring his mouth and his moans vibrating against Blaine's lips. "What are you doing?" he asked softly, a little scared.

"Do you want to have sex with me tonight?" Kurt questioned, pulling back and squeezing Blaine's hands. Nodding fervently, Blaine laughed as Kurt swept him into his arms and carried him away to the bedroom, tipping him onto the bed and collapsing on top of him, kissing and touching and slowly undressing, never wanting it to end.

Kurt opened him up slowly, with gentle fingers, stroking his hair reassuringly, and slid into him without a barrier between them, and Blaine couldn't help crying out, Kurt's lips firm and passionate on his, their bodies moving together, desperate and reverent and wanting. At the moment of orgasm, Blaine broke and, "I love you, Kurt," spilled from his lips into the heady air between them.

Collapsing on top of him, Kurt pressed kisses to his bare shoulder, murmuring, "I love you too, Blaine," against his skin.

* * *

Blaine awoke in the morning to the sun shining through the window, streaming past the unclosed curtains, and the bed empty next to him. He stood up and stepped into clean boxers, sliding a pale blue shirt of Kurt's over his arms and shoulders and letting the halves flap open, showing a long strip of olive skin scattered with coarse dark hair, and walked into the kitchen to hear cheerful humming and the sound of something simmering.

Kurt was standing over the oven, in loose heather-grey pants that cut off at his calves, the white tank top clinging to his curve of his waist and his toned stomach, the muscles of his arms and shoulders swelling from the material. "Good morning, beautiful," he murmured, turning to Blaine with a soft smile on his face. "Bacon and pancakes for breakfast?"

"You think I'm beautiful?" Blaine asked softly, and Kurt left their breakfast on the stove to come over and slide his hands around Blaine's waist to curl against the small of his back, drawing him in close. He smiled softly and Blaine barely had time to inhale shakily before Kurt was kissing him, dipping him back a little beneath the force of the embrace. When Kurt broke away, breathing heavy and eyes dark, Blaine asked, "So was last night good for you?"

"Last night was the best night of my life," Kurt promised him, playing with his fingers at their sides. "I gave everything to the man I love, who told me he loves me back. How could it be anything other than perfect?" He kissed Blaine again, soft, quick pecks, punctuating every kiss with a whisper, "And I want to do it all over again."

"Kurt," Blaine sighed, arching as Kurt's lips found his neck, then a more forceful, "Kurt! Our food will burn." Kurt just laughed against his lips, breaking away briefly to turn off the flames before returning to Blaine's arms, backing him towards the couch, leaning over him with a loving smile before dropping to kiss him again, once on the lips before moving down his jaw and neck, mouthing at sensitive skin, bound to leave marks.

Blaine arched his body into Kurt's with a moan muffled against Kurt's lips, arms rising up from their spread-eagled position across the couch to wind around Kurt's neck, fingers wound tight into his hair as Kurt's hands slid down to his ass, curving over the flesh and squeezing, tugging him closer so their cocks dragged deliciously together through their clothes, making them both moan at the electric contact.

"I never knew how good it could feel when humans mate," he whispered into the air between them, Kurt rocking down purposefully against him, Blaine's hands playing with the material of his tank top stretched across the muscles of his back. "My people don't do this for mere pleasure, they do it for family."

"Well, when you're a gay man it's always for fun," Kurt said breathlessly, smiling as he pressed quick, delicate kisses against Blaine's mouth. "Have I told you I love you this morning? Because I do, I love you. So much."

"I love you," Blaine murmured, tucking a sweat-damp lock of hair back behind Kurt's ear and pushing himself up on his elbows to catch Kurt's mouth in a deep kiss, fingers hooking around his cheek to press him close.

"I'm not working today," Kurt whispered, voice heavy with potential, hips working frantically against Blaine's, fingers dancing over the bare skin of his chest. "We can spend the whole day together, just us, go down to the beach where we first met and have dinner and wine on the terrace. Pure romance." Blaine nodded dazedly and pulled Kurt down against him, hips pressing against him almost hard enough to be called violent as he came, Kurt following him a minute later with a soft groan straight into his ear, making his cock twitch painfully in his boxers.

Once breakfast was gone and they were both covered marginally more, Kurt took Blaine's hand tenderly in his and led him down to the beach, a mere five minute walk from the pretty little house. The sand was powdery against his bare feet, the sun beating down on the back of his neck, Kurt's laugh echoing like music on the summer breeze as Blaine tore his shirt over his head and headed for the cool welcoming arms of the gently stirring waves.

"Come on!" he called to Kurt, holding out his hands and smiling as Kurt shook his hand and ran barefoot across the crescent of white sand towards him, skin like marble in the sunlight, spraying water up around them as he crashed into him, knocking him backwards into the water, lips warm and soft and salty when they found Blaine's, hungry kisses and fingers looped into curls stiffening with the salt water.

When they resurfaced, Kurt rolling over so Blaine was on top of him as the waves lapped affectionately around them, Blaine looked up to see shrewd, familiar eyes watching them, just above the surface of the water. A blink of green, a flicker of a tail, the shine of scales in the falling sunbeams, and he was gone and Kurt was kissing rapidly just beneath Blaine's ear, and Blaine was distracted again, paying no more heed to narrowed green eyes and a dark red tail beating at the water, taking news down to the fathoms below that Blaine Anderson, son of the king's closest and most trusted advisor, had turned himself into a human for the love of a man.

* * *

_"Sire, the younger Anderson son has went against our laws and our very nature. He went to the elders, as that disgrace to our kind did twenty-three years ago, and secured a potion to make himself into a human for the love of a man."_

_"Well this is most interesting news. Young man, will you please find Anderson and bring him to me? He has been looking anxiously for his son for several months. I wouldn't want him to continue with his life trapped in his anxiety."_

Blaine rocketed out of bed, Kurt rolling over and blinking blearily at him as he rushed out of their bedroom for the bathroom, stomach roiling like the waves during a storm as he emptied what seemed to be everything he'd eaten in his entire life into the toilet, clinging weakly to the edges of the porcelain bowl, slumping against the floor with his forehead pressed against the cool tile.

"Honey? Blaine, are you okay?" Weakly pushing himself up from the floor, Blaine wiped a hand across the sweat slicking his forehead and gave Kurt a wan smile. "Oh God, we shouldn't have had those oysters last night, they must've given you food poisoning," Kurt said anxiously, dropping to his knees beside Blaine and wrapping an arm around him, feeling his forehead with his mouth pinched tight in a line of worry. "Honey, I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault," Blaine whispered, letting himself lean heavily into Kurt. "Can you just give me a minute to brush my teeth? Then I'll come through and eat breakfast, I'm actually really hungry."

Kurt giggled and pressed a kiss to his temple, rubbing his back before he stood up, teasing, "You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were pregnant." Kissing Blaine's cheek lingeringly, he smirked at him before ducking out of the bathroom, leaving Blaine to lean heavily on the sink, gazing wide-eyed at his reflection in the glass ringed with fingerprints, from him wistfully touching the reflection of Kurt's face before turning to repeat every motion onto warm skin when Kurt had plastered himself against his back the night before, fingers playing mischievously along the edge of his towel.

When his brother had married a pretty blonde mermaid, they had begun their family right away. He could still remember the lines of irritation carved deep into Cooper's face as Quinn flitted around him sinuously and teased him about his hormones. His mother had explained reproduction to him when he was very young by likening the merpeople to seahorses. Could his and Kurt's love-making have led to a brood growing within him?

Rolling up his shirt, he curved his hands over his belly, pressing gently at the skin. It definitely seemed firmer and rounder than usual, but he simply couldn't know for sure. Could he walk into the clinic in the town and ask to be given an ultrasound?

"Blaine, I thought you were coming," Kurt said sweetly from the doorway, his head tilted as he looked curiously at Blaine's hand against his stomach. "What's going on, honey? You're not debating whether you're fat, are you, because you're not and I never want you to think like that about yourself."

"Kurt, I think..." Blaine trailed off, unsure of how to put his thoughts forward in the human language. "I think you making love to me so wonderfully and so frequently has led to us...expecting a brood."

"Are you trying to say you think we're having a baby?" Kurt asked, and Blaine almost collapsed, grateful that Kurt understood. "You do know that's impossible, right? We're both men, Blaine, neither of us has the necessary parts to get pregnant."

"Do you know how seahorses reproduce?" Blaine asked, and Kurt nodded, drawing him close and leaning their foreheads together, chuckling softly at him. Hurt by his flippancy, Blaine continued, "That's kind of how my people reproduce. The men receive the eggs from the women and fertilize them, and carry them in a pouch until they're ready to give birth. Perhaps, somehow, when I became human, the magic twisted my body into something not entirely male. Maybe it gave me some sort of pouch inside." He brushed hair back from Kurt's face, frozen in shock. "Kurt, maybe we should go to see the doctor."

"No, if they find out you're not entirely human they'll take you away from me and do horrible experiments on you, I won't let them do that," Kurt said, slowly dragging his hand across Blaine's hip to cup over his belly, caressing all over the skin. "Maybe it does feel a little swollen, but that might be because you're sick, or because you're eating much richer food since you came to me. Let's not worry until we can be sure."

"Kurt, I really think I am pregnant," Blaine insisted, catching Kurt's wrists in his hands and meeting his eyes, seeing fear and shock there. "I can't think of any other reason I would be so sick and yet so hungry at the same time, this is how my people reproduce, please just let me at least consult with a doctor about this, it's so huge."

"Blaine, for the last time, we're not having a baby!" Kurt yelled, and Blaine started. Kurt had never once raised his voice in front of him, never been angry, and seeing him like that made Blaine want to run back to the water and let the current guide him home. "You're not pregnant! You're a man, you don't have a uterus or ovaries or a vagina, and I wouldn't want you if you did! We're done talking about this!"

"I thought you loved me," Blaine whispered brokenly, dropping Kurt's hands and placing his protectively against his belly. "Will you stop loving me if we have a baby?"

"This is insane," Kurt said quietly, backing away from Blaine. "You're not pregnant. We're not going to have a baby. It's...it's impossible. Just...just leave me alone." He walked away, shoulders held high and back perfectly straight, and Blaine wrapped his arms around himself and sat on the edge of the bathtub, hands moving reverently over the curve of his stomach, imagining a baby growing within him, his and Kurt's baby.

A baby Kurt obviously didn't want.


	5. Five

Kurt's endless resentful silence had lasted three achingly long days. He hadn't said a single word, had slept each night on the couch and left Blaine cold and lonely and curled into a tight ball in their bed, tears slipping down his cheeks. Each morning, Blaine awoke with his stomach churning, only affirming his belief that he was carrying Kurt's baby.

On the fourth day, he chose to simply visit the clinic alone, just to be sure, just to  _know_. With the weight of his phone heavy in his pocket, something Kurt had foisted on him and taught him how to use in case of an emergency, Blaine walked into the tiny seaside town, disorientated by all the swirling sights and sounds and smells, and walked into the clinic, looking curiously around at the padded blue chairs, the people wan and shaking reading the magazines, and the pair of young children playing with toys in the corner.

Rubbing a hand wistfully over his belly, Blaine cautiously approached the desk with the neat marker labelled  _RECEPTION_  on the wood, politely clearing his throat to announce his presence and murmuring, "I'm here for an ultrasound like in the books about pregnancy, do you do that?"

"Of course, sir," the blonde woman, in her blue uniform, said brightly. "Name please?"

"Blaine," he replied easily, smiling widely at her, blue eyes like the burnish of the sky and a welcoming smile.

"First and last names, please," she said, her voice a little more tense, like Kurt's when he had talked about how the hospital would experiment on Blaine if he tried to speak to a doctor. But these people were nice and smiling and welcoming, they would help him and show him how to make Kurt love him again.

"Um...Hummel," Blaine said immediately, a flush curling high in his cheeks, biting his lip as he wondered how Kurt would feel about Blaine using his name like this. "Blaine Hummel."

"Okay, Mr. Hummel, just take a seat and we'll have Dr. Jameson come through for you as soon as he's available," the woman said with a smile that Blaine returned as he sat down, watching the children playing, wincing when their mother snapped at them for being too loud.

He wouldn't treat his child like that. He would be a good and proud father, letting their baby run in the land and sea, growing up between their worlds, teach them to swim and dive and discover wonderful treasures in shipwrecks, and Kurt could teach them to sing and build sandcastles and cook. Perhaps he and Kurt could be betrothed as his people were expected to be by their eighteenth birthdays, but he had rejected due to not being able to find a suitable suitor. They would have a family, and be happy in their little house by the sea for the rest of their lives.

"Mr. Hummel?" came a questioning voice, and Blaine glanced up to see a dark-skinned man watching him from an archway, giving him a warm, comforting smile. "Follow me, please." Blaine obeyed the simple order, following him into a room filled with the shine of metal and a long chair in the centre, more like a bed. "Lie down on the chair, and tell me why you want an ultrasound?"

"Well, I think my boyfriend frequently and wonderfully making love to me has led to me carrying his baby, but he doesn't believe me," Blaine said, seeing the man's eyes widen and his eyes flicker down to his stomach. "I've been getting really sick in the morning, but I'm still hungry all the time, and my belly feels rounder and firmer if I touch it. I read that an ultrasound could show me the baby."

"Yes, it can," the doctor finally said, his voice a little quieter than it had been before, surprised. "Just lie on your back, Mr. Hummel, and I'll use this wand. You'll be able to hear the baby's heartbeat and see him or her on this little screen. Do you want a picture to show your boyfriend?"

"Yes please," Blaine said brightly, lying back on the chair. He squirmed and giggled at the doctor's touch as he lifted his shirt up and smeared a cool gel over his belly, taking a grey wand and running it across the skin.

"Mr. Hummel, it would appear you are carrying a baby," the doctor said faintly after a moment, as a dull thudding sound filled the room that Blaine knew was his baby, his and Kurt's child's heartbeat. "Surely this is impossible." He turned steely eyes on Blaine and asked, "Would you be opposed to a few tests? Just to determine what has caused this occurrence?"

Kurt's words flew back to Blaine, and he wanted to shake his head, but the look in the doctor's eyes scared him, and he found himself nodding, and the doctor left him alone. Tears stinging at his eyes, Blaine unearthed his phone from his pocket and dialled his home with trembling fingers, desperately wishing under his breath for Kurt to pick up. "Hello?"

"Kurt, please help me," he begged brokenly, a tear slipping down his cheek. "I went to the clinic even though you told me not to, just so I could know, and I am pregnant, I am, I heard the baby's heartbeat and I saw him or her on the little screen, but now they want to experiment on me, just like you said. The doctor went to get some needles and something to test my blood, I'm so scared they're going to take our baby, please come and get me.  _Please_."

"Blaine, what are you doing, I warned you not to go, especially not alone!" Kurt scolded, and Blaine choked out a ragged sob, because on top of everything else Kurt was angry with him. If Kurt didn't come, they would force him to let them experiment on his body, and they'd take the baby away. "No, honey, please don't cry, I'm not mad, okay. I should've made sure to come with you. I'm sorry, please just hang on and stay safe. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Please hurry," Blaine pleaded, cupping a hand protectively over his belly, whimpering at footsteps beyond the door, tears pouring down his cheeks. "I love you, Kurt."

"I love you too, Blainey," Kurt said softly. "Don't let them put any needles or tools near you, get them talking or something. I'll take my bike, I'll be about ten minutes. I'll sue them, I swear I will, we'll sue them for everything they're worth. Hang on, honey, I'm coming."

Kurt was gone with a clatter and a loud click, and Blaine held the phone against his heart, clinging to the knowing that Kurt was coming to save him and their baby, his other hand rubbing soothing circles over the beginnings of a bump, waiting for the sound of Kurt's voice.

The doctor came back in what could have been a lifetime later, accompanied by three others, a woman and two men, and coaxed, "Lie down, Mr. Hummel. We're just going to take a blood sample, and then we'll need you to put on a hospital gown so we can examine how you might have become pregnant."

Quaking in fear, Blaine watched as the woman revealed a silver tray of tools, a wicked-looking needle in her hand and a horrible gleam in her eyes as she came towards him. He shrank back against the chair, closing his eyes and wrapping his arms over his belly and whispering desperately under his breath, begging for Kurt to come, for anyone to realise what these people were doing wasn't right and help him.

"Don't touch him!" came a familiar voice, and Blaine let out a sob of relief as his eyes flew open and he saw Kurt in the doorway, hair windswept and cheeks flushed and chest rising and falling rapidly in time with his heavy breathing. He staggered upright and the room swayed as he collapsed into Kurt's open arms, sobbing brokenly into his chest.

"Did he consent to this?" Kurt snapped at the doctors, his arms strong and warm and familiar around Blaine, holding the fragments of him together. "Did he agree to let you shove needles into him and examine him like he's your lab rat? Just give us a picture of the ultrasound and we'll be leaving and not coming back." The people around them, looking terrified, obeyed Kurt's cold voice, handing him a picture and flushing guiltily as Kurt slid an arm around Blaine to guide him out into the sunlight, rubbing his shuddering shoulder.

Once they were outside, Blaine could calm down a little with the scent of salt on the wind reminding him of the world he came from and Kurt's lips moving gently across his skin, kissing his tears away. "I'm so sorry," Kurt whispered, sounding heartbroken himself. "I should never have left you in silence for so long. I should've known you'd resort to this so you could know and I never wanted you or our baby risked like this, I..."

He broke down in tears, and Blaine panicked, guilt rising in his chest at making Kurt cry. "I love you so much, Blaine. It scares me how fast I fell for you, and how much of this I don't understand. I'm only twenty, I live in a house by the beach that my dad left me in his will and suddenly my boyfriend is a mermaid and now expecting our baby and I don't know how we'll deal with the pregnancy or what's going to happen to him, and I dealt with it in such a stupid way. No matter what happens, I'm here to take care of you, and this baby is going to be so loved. He or she is our baby, and we'll weather every storm that might come because of this."

"I love you," Blaine whispered, and bounced onto his toes to kiss Kurt, wrapping his arms around his neck and pressing close. Kurt's hand found the subtle curve of his belly, his thumb slowly tracing the line, and Blaine smiled against his mouth and pressed closer, Kurt's arm wrapping around him to hoist him into the air, nearly sending both of them falling to the ground.

"Our baby," Kurt murmured reverently, spreading the fingers of both hands wide over the stretching skin, face open and shining brighter than the sun as he looked up at Blaine, who nodded eagerly and wrapped his hands over Kurt's, drawing them up over his chest and shoulders to cup his face so he could lean in to kiss Kurt once more.


	6. Six

Blaine awoke to the late-afternoon sun pouring through the windows and the whisper of the front door sliding open, soft footsteps on the wood, and Kurt's smile warming him more than the rays brightening the blue walls and glancing through the glass. "I didn't mean to fall asleep, I was going to wait for you to come home," Blaine mumbled sleepily, rubbing his eyes, and Kurt just laughed affectionately and pressed a soft kiss to his mouth.

When Kurt slid into place next to him, smothering a yawn behind his head as he nestled his head into Blaine's lap, sighing contentedly when Blaine's fingers slid into his hair, Blaine licked his lips nervously and murmured, "I want to go down to the beach and see my parents. I want to tell them about this. They deserve to know that I've found love and I'm pregnant."

"Are you sure?" Kurt asked softly, brows drawing together with worry. "Don't the merpeople have some kind of law about fraternising with humans? I don't want to be the reason you get into trouble."

"I don't think there is a law, all I've ever had is my father telling me not to swim up to the shore because humans were cruel creatures who might try and hurt me," Blaine said thoughtfully, smiling tenderly down at Kurt and stroking his hair slowly. "How wrong he was."

Kurt sat up slowly, wriggling into a comfortable upright position, and leaned in to kiss Blaine, fingers curving over the swell of his belly, beginning to press against his shirt with the growth of their baby. "I have a friend who should be by the shore just now, she always used to sneak away from her parents at sunset to play with the seals," Blaine explained softly. Kurt just smiled and linked his fingers through Blaine's, helping him to his feet and guiding him out of the house.

They walked barefoot across the sand dappled with the golden rays fading into red, warmed by the sprawling sunlit day, hands entwined and Blaine tucked as much into Kurt's side as he could be, searching the waves lapping gently at the curve of white sand for a familiar blonde head.

The barking of the seals filled the air, and Blaine let go of Kurt's hand to turn for the crop of rough grey rock jutting out into the ocean, beginning to climb as Kurt's shout of, "Blaine, please be careful!" rolled across the sand like a gentle breeze.

An unbidden smile turned up the corners of Blaine's mouth when he ascended the sloping face of the rock and found Brittany in the deep blue water at the other side, her laughter the notes of a joyful song on the air as a seal pup flipped into the water beside her, rolling over and over in circles around her. Familiar blue eyes flickered upwards to rest on him, and the colour drained from her cheeks as she stared at him.

"Hi," he said softly, reaching down for her, hearing his voice come out in the shrieks of his people's language. "I came home, Britt. Just like I said I would."

"They told me you were dead!" she shouted angrily, eyes blazing with anger. "I thought you'd been captured by a human and they'd taken you away and shoved you in poisonous water. I thought you'd died and the last thing I said to you was that you were stupid for trying to speak to your angel man!"

"Who told you I was dead?" Blaine asked worriedly, swinging his legs over the edge of the rock and seeing her gape. "The potion the elders gave me went a little wrong, and it turned me human. I've been living with Kurt, he's been helping me adjust to the land, and he's as wonderful as I thought he'd be, Britt. We've fallen in love. I get to be with my human, just like Elizabeth did." He didn't wait for Brittany to get over her shock before he continued, "I want to speak with my father. Can you ask him to meet with me further down the beach? There's someone I want to introduce him to, and something I want to tell him."

Brittany just nodded and flipped backwards, disappearing beneath the waves. Smiling to himself, happy to see his friend again after all these days, Blaine climbed carefully down and ran back to Kurt. "She was surprised that I was with you, but she was happy to see me again," he explained carefully as Kurt's arms came around him, cradling him close. "Someone's been telling people that I'm dead, though, which is a bit worrying. Brittany's gone to get my father, I want to introduce you two."

Smiling sweetly at him, eyes bright at the prospect, Kurt wound an arm tight around Blaine's waist and kissed him hard, tongue warm and wet, tracing the curve of Blaine's lower lip as Blaine kissed back just as deeply, fingers curling into Kurt's hair as they sank to the sand, Kurt kneeling between Blaine's spread legs as he kissed him.

They only surfaced for air when Blaine heard a splash and pulled away, sliding out from beneath the warm strength of Kurt's body to see his father at the sand's edge, face red with anger and eyes thunderous as he gazed at them, Blaine flushed and dizzy-eyed and smiling with kiss-swollen lips as he crawled down the beach to his father.

"It's so wonderful to see you again," he murmured, crossing his legs neatly beneath him and wrapping both arms over his belly. "I went to the elders, but the potion they gave me went wrong and turned me human. I only wanted to speak English so I could know my angel man, but instead he helped me and taught me, and I've been living with him for these past few moons. I didn't want you to worry, father, I'm sorry." He took a deep breath, looking at his father's frozen face, and continued, "I'm in love with Kurt, father. This is like nothing I've ever felt before. I wish to be betrothed to him and to stay on land with him. I am carrying his child, father."

"How dare you?!" his father suddenly roared, and Blaine recoiled, frightened of this angry creature in front of him, a man he didn't recognise. "To fraternise with a human is a risk to our world, but to mate with him and to carry his child is a treason to our king. I expected better of you, my son. But now I see that you are no better than that Elizabeth, running out on her betrothed for the flimsy love of a human. I can only be glad that Sebastian caught you with this  _thing_ ," he gestured to Kurt, sneering, "and alerted the king to it so I could make it clear that I knew nothing of your thoughtless love."

"I don't understand," Blaine said in a small voice, wrapping his arms protectively around himself, around his baby. "I thought you wanted me to find love and be happy."

"With our people, Blaine, not with a human!" his father shouted, and Blaine jumped, a tear slipping down his cheek as he groped for Kurt's hand, the reassuring warmth of his skin and familiarity of his fingers between Blaine's. "You are banished from our world. You may not return home. I don't wish to see you again, for you are no longer my son."

"Father, please-"

"Not another word from you, boy. You shall never betray our family this way again." His father vanished below the surface of the water, and Blaine let his tears fall, darkening the sand beneath him as Kurt slid close and wrapped his arms around him.

"Honey, what happened?" he asked softly, kissing Blaine's temple and tucking his chin over Blaine's shoulder. "Please tell me, don't leave me in the dark."

"You and I...falling in love with you makes me guilty of treason," Blaine explained, voice shaking with sobs as he clung to Kurt, his only anchor in the spinning world. "I've been banished. I can't ever go home. I'll never see my family again. I have nothing except you."

"Blaine, I'm so sorry," Kurt whispered, blinking wet eyes at Blaine, cradling him close to the sharp lines of his body. "This is all my fault. I'm so sorry."

Blaine simply leaned into Kurt, the only thing secure in his life anymore, letting his tears fall for the stars fading into the deep blue sky to see.


	7. Seven

**Pairing:**  Kurt/Blaine

 **Rating:**  NC-17/M

 **Story Warnings/Kinks:** Merman!Blaine, magic, bottom!Blaine, mpreg

* * *

Blaine was quickly coming to decide that the mornings were his favourite part about being human. The crisp golden light of the sun arcing through the window over their bed, bright through the pale blue curtains, Kurt tucked in behind him, breath warm over the back of Blaine's neck, hand fitted over the curve of his belly, everything was always quiet contentment in the mornings.

Rolling over into the warm circle of Kurt's arms, Blaine smiled into familiar eyes, blue in the morning light and heavy-lidded with sleep, and leaned in to press a soft kiss to tempting lips. "Hi," he murmured softly, sliding his fingers through Kurt's where they rested at his waist, guiding his hand down to map out the swell of his belly.

"Hi yourself, beautiful," Kurt whispered, eyes glinting with mischief as he pressed closer, wrapping his arms around Blaine and rolling so Blaine was on top of him, giggling and dropping his head onto Kurt's shoulder to hide a coy blush as he felt Kurt's cock stir against his thigh.

The merry trill of the doorbell shattered their moment, and Blaine laughed as Kurt groaned in frustration and threw an arm over his eyes, sliding off him and getting out of bed, adjusting his shirt where Kurt's eager fingers had started pulling it up. "Just leave it, Blaine, it'll just be someone selling something," he said, running his palm alluringly over the bare bed sheets. "Come on, honey, come back to bed."

"Common courtesy, Kurt," Blaine reminded him affectionately, leaning over to kiss him softly. "Put some pants on, I'll get the door and turn them away if it's a salesperson."

Leaving Kurt laying haphazardly across the bed, heart singing with love, Blaine padded into the living room and opened the door to a very beautiful girl standing there, backlit by the sun, a slim scarf fluttering around her neck in the breeze and her eyes raking obviously over Blaine. Without so much as a question, she stalked past him into the house, yelling, "Kurt, since when did you get a butler? Get out here and give me a hug!"

"He's not my butler, you dolt," Kurt snapped at her as he emerged from the bedroom to wrap his arms around the girl, kissing her cheek and sending a shock of bitter-hot jealousy through Blaine. Kurt was only supposed to kiss him like that. "Blaine, Santana, my insufferable friend who will never understand my decision to stay here instead of going with her to New York. Santana, Blaine, my boyfriend who you will  _not_  be quizzing about our sex life."

"Oh, so it looks like the beach bum lifestyle did work out for you," Santana observed, raking her eyes over Blaine once more, making him blush and shrink back beneath the scrutiny. "I take back everything I ever said, Hummel, you got a keeper here."

Blaine flushed and hid his face in Kurt's shoulder, curling his fingers into Kurt's shirt, comforted when Kurt hissed, "It's complicated, San, just leave him alone. Sit down, I'll make coffee."

Tugging at Kurt's hand, Blaine reminded him, "Kurt, I can't have-"

"I know, honey, coffee for me and Santana, orange juice for you," Kurt assured him sweetly, pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth that made a blush of pleasure rise in Blaine's cheeks, his eyes drifting as if drawn by magic to the sweet curve of Kurt's ass as he walked into the kitchen.

"I can't believe I've been here for four whole minutes and you haven't asked me what's brought me here," Santana declared, sprawling out across the sofa as if she had lived here all her life. Blaine bristled territorially - first she kissed  _his_  Kurt, now she was acting like their home was hers.

"Excuse me, I think you're being rather rude putting your feet all over our things like that," he snapped, and Santana looked up at him with an eyebrow quirked incredulously. "Could you please take your feet off our couch, it's very rude to sit like that in someone else's home."

"What century did you pull this kid out of, Hummel?!" Santana called into the kitchen, flashing Blaine a smirk as she deliberately rubbed the soles of her sand-encrusted shoes all over the cushions. "And you guys are living together already? When I talked you a month ago you didn't even have a boyfriend!"

"I told you, it's complicated, leave it alone!" Kurt snapped, warming Blaine's heart and letting him relax when Kurt shoved Santana's legs off the cushion and laid down their drinks, opening his arms for Blaine to sit next to him, snuggling down into the solid warmth of his chest through his shirt. "So what brings you to the seaside, Santana? You always hated it here."

"Naomi dumped me," Santana said dolefully, taking a long sip of her coffee. "That's the seventh girl in six months to leave me. I thought New York was supposed to be about opportunity."

"I think that's for careers, not sex," Kurt corrected gently. "And maybe it's because you're obviously still hung up on Quinn. You need to either call her and apologise, or get over her, otherwise she'll affect your love life for years to come."

"But it's only been eight months since you dumped Adam and you're apparently already living with someone new," Santana said sadly, gesturing to Blaine. "I just want someone to love me, Kurt. Why can't I have that?"

"Santana, I think the fact that I was never really in love with Adam helped with the getting over him without too much ice-cream in the equation," Kurt said softly, and Blaine stared at him with wide eyes, not knowing he'd dated someone else before him. "We were together for two months, I never even let him kiss me, was I supposed to be heartbroken when we broke up?" He reached out to place a hand on her thigh, making Blaine's blood boil with jealousy. "Are you in town for a while, then?"

"Gonna stay with my parents, I think, and my sister's about to have a baby, might as well hang around long enough to become an aunt," Santana said with a shrug. Looking at Kurt, Blaine could see him thinking, chewing distractedly on his lower lip.

"Your dad takes care of pregnant women, right?" he asked softly, and Santana nodded. "Okay, I'm going to tell you something, and don't freak out. Remember when we were little and my mom used to tell us if we stayed by the sea as the moon rose, we could see a mermaid? And the time we thought we'd seen one, but the people at school told us we were just tired and our eyes were playing tricks on us."

"Fucking Azimio told me I needed to get my dad to scan my brain," Santana growled angrily, punching one fisted hand into the other.

"Well, turns out merpeople are actually real," Kurt said slowly, his eyes flickering over her face for a reaction. "I know this because when I was walking on the beach during a storm, I found one tangled up in a fishing net, and I cut him free. He left without any sign to me, but he came back. We couldn't speak, we didn't know each other's languages, but we touched and I started to feel things for him that I knew I should feel with Adam but never could. I was waiting for him one night when I saw someone drowning, and I dived in to save him. I had to bring him home, he was disorientated, and it turned out he was that same mermaid, turned into a human. He's been living with me, we've fallen madly in love, and I've discovered that the men carry children in merpeople, and that's translated to us expecting a baby."

Santana's eyes were large as saucers, flickering back and forth between Kurt and Blaine, knuckles white around the handle of her mug. "Are you saying Blaine used to be a mermaid, and he's pregnant?" she asked. "Fucking bullshit, Kurt. Don't lie to me."

"I'm not, look at this picture!" Kurt exclaimed, grabbing the ultrasound picture in its frame from the table and handing it to her. She stared down at it, and looked back up with tears in her eyes. "Oh, come on, don't cry. Where's the tough bitch I know and love?"

"You're having a baby," Santana breathed. "My best friend is having a baby. I'm so happy for you!"

"Okay, can you please talk to your dad for us?" Kurt asked softly, eyes round and pleading. "Blaine went to the clinic, but they tried to experiment on him, we can't trust them. I just need a doctor we can go to that we can trust in case something bad happens."

"Okay, I'll talk to him," Santana agreed, wiping her eyes on her sleeves. "You lucky boys. Blaine, you better give him everything he deserves."

"Of course I will," Blaine said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I love him more than you could ever know."


End file.
